The new age Humans constantly need different forms of entertainment, something to keep us going. Our love for automating things and various options to ponder in a competitive environment has stimulated our brains to the extent that we are detaching ourselves from ourselves. In Today’s topic, I will be talking about how we have diminished our self-awareness with numerous technological distractions of the world and how we can regain our self-awareness back.

              Though technological evolution has proven the spectacular intellectual ability of human beings, Our minds are now used to technological pampering. They are not used to being blank and having that pause moment, it wants to keep fidgeting with all human creations.

              We keep planning our days, so we won’t get bored. We keep cribbing about the deadlines, yet when we have time to do something we are in the same state. Are we not enjoying our own company anymore? Or want to know more about ourselves and who we are?

              People addicted to hustle culture are living a robotic lifestyle where they won’t even get time to get bored or heal their suppressed emotions. The worst is they enjoy it too and later blame it on the stress.

              Who has spoiled our minds to this extent? We right?

              No matter how passionate you are about anything, spending time with yourself or just being an observer is essential for mental health.

             Somewhere over these superficial layers of technology and modern work culture have made us deteriorate our natural self-awareness.

             It took a pandemic and forced slow living for people to realize the importance of self-awareness.

              Thankfully, people have come to realize the significance of being self-aware. When you understand your feelings, emotions, personality, and how you interact with the outside environment it can reduce 50 % of your life problems and sometimes even mental illnesses triggered by wrong actions and behaviors. 

              Many Spiritual beliefs say our life is 50% predestined and 50% is human choice. And this 50% is totally in our hands.

              When you allow yourself to make conscious choices you improve your quality of life in various dimensions.

            For this, all we have to do is practice self-awareness practices and rituals, by getting in touch with ourselves, self-analyzing our behavior, our patterns, our tantrums, and mood swings regularly, and asking ourselves impactful questions which will enhance our clarity of what we are doing in your daily lives.

          Many people overlook the importance of this tiny aspect of human life as it comes free to humans, without actualizing the fact that our awareness is what differentiates us from other creatures on the planet.

           Before wading into the ways to regain our awareness back let’s understand

         How lack of Self-awareness has been affecting our daily lives unknowingly

• Due to a lack of self-awareness, we are already settling for a compromised low-grade lifestyle.
• We don’t see it, but our decision-making capability has already deteriorated to low quality.
• Our happiness quotient is reduced big time.
• Mental illnesses are on the rise. 
• Stress levels are rising.
• We are wasting our half-lives in our repetitive old patterns of limiting beliefs, values, and emotional triggers.
• There are high chances of people regretting deathbeds as they are not able to realize their purpose early in life.

        Just as we cleanse our body our mind needs cleansing too from the patterns of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

      Earlier people could get ample time to reflect on their feelings and themselves. Today we have all kinds of distractions which we feel will give us relief to escape from our delusions of the mind.

          Self-awareness acts as a cleanser and path clearer in the process of our lives

          It’s never too late though, you can still get a  grasp of your self-awareness back if you practice a few awareness rituals and techniques on regular basis.

           Below are some best practices that can help you regain your muscle of self-awareness.

       Remember the results will not come in one go you have to keep practicing and make it a lifestyle or a daily ritual.

     

       1. Mediation:

            A lot of people think meditation needs a certain level of calmness or space where you can meditate. But it’s not as complicated as it sounds. Meditation can be practiced in various ways like concentrating on objects, breathing, or mantras and sounds.

     Beginners can simply start being an observer of their thoughts, feelings, and emotions or watch you breathe. Meditation brings you clarity and calmness. Reduces stress and brings you in present.

         Considering the innumerable benefits of meditation, self-aware is a product of regular meditation over time as it trashes all unnecessary things and gives clarity.

   

 2. Maintain a self-reflective journal

     You don’t have to be a writer to write and maintain your daily journals. For many, it might sound boring, but trust me you will reap the benefits of it sooner than any other technique. Writing one’s journal is like talking to oneself in privacy

            Describing your feelings to yourself will give your the root cause of where such mixed feelings came from. Little by little you will love writing journals because they will eventually show you the mirror.

    3. Grounding technique

      In my last blog, I wrote a book review of Kunal Dudeja’s book ‘Calm the chaotic mind’. This book contains some amazing easy to practice techniques that will help you de-stress instantly. 

One of the grounding techniques I experimented which sounds simple but the after-effect was mind-blowing;

  Below is the grounding technique from the book you can practice anywhere to get back to the present or be self-aware.

        Step 1: Look for any five things in your surrounding and describe to your mind what you see.

        Step 2: Touch and feel any 4 things around you and feel the texture.

        Step 3: Acknowledge the sound of any 3 things in your surrounding. It could be any light sound like tap water, a watch, or traffic.

        Step 4: Notice and try to smell any two things in your surrounding.

        Step 5: Become aware of any 1 thing you can taste for eg coffee or lemon, panipuri, etc 

    Don’t be in a hurry while doing it. This grounding technique based on the 5 senses is one of my favorites from the book which can be applied easily from anywhere and anytime.

     

   4. Grow Emotional intelligence 

   EI is nothing but mastering your emotions and their responses for one’s emotional maturity. You can also start to be Self- aware by just mastering your emotions. Self-awareness is one of the components of emotional intelligence.

   

   5. Practice Silence 

When you practice being silent, you shift your focus to your thoughts, which helps you be aware of yourself and your surroundings in general. It rejuvenates the mind, body, and soul. It enhances your creativity and helps you learn a lot about yourself.

   Art of living by Sri Sri Ravishankar offers 4 day Art of silence course which is highly recommended by many people and is one on my to-do lists for the future. 

   

   6. Go on a solo trip 

.Yes solo travel can be slightly frightening as you naturally become self-conscious, observant, and more alert of your safety. But once you manage to do it all by yourself you will release many limiting beliefs you had of yourself and become a more confident and self-aware person.

   7. Practice slow living 

   When you live a slow life at your pace it effortlessly brings your attention to the present. And when you are in the present it’s easier to practice self-awareness. This is one of the reasons our ancestors had a heightened sense of self-awareness.

   8. Keep asking yourself effective questions 

I can’t emphasize enough the power of questions in one’s life. We are good at asking questions to others but when it comes to our own lives we are not at all interested. We think we know ourselves enough. Has it ever happened to you that you had a bulb on the moment when someone asked you an effective question about your life? and since then everything changes and brings new possibilities into your life all of a sudden.

     

    9. Read non-fiction books 

     Non-fiction books are extremely educative about every aspect of one’s life. The real-life experiences of others’ lives or examples might have a bulb-on moment in your life.

  They are packed with a lot of solutions for one’s growth in life. When you read about some new concept from a book you never came across or thought about, there are high chances your subconscious mind will note it. And you may imbibe or have similar experiences which will improve your awareness of a lot of things from other sources.

   10. Keep learning new things

      This will not just help you see things from others’ perspectives but also build awareness about yourself. A new course, you enrolled in must have resonated with your personality and might be your passion too. Not necessarily it has to be a professional course it could be any creative or innovative concept. This will just add extended wings to your existing self-awareness.  

Conclusion 

         Technology essentially is not a bad thing, but getting addicted to it is diminishing the quality of human life. Increased self-awareness will bring brilliant ideas and innovations in terms of technology in the future. But the crux of the matter boils down to a balance of everything in life. This harmony can be acquired with conscious choices and efforts. Self-awareness is just to bridge this gap of imbalance.